----------------------------------------
A desolate battlefield littered with blood and bodies; a gruesome sight for most, but it was something I was more than used to seeing. Still, in recent years I was slowly growing out of touch with this sort of harsh reality so perhaps this conflict was just leading up to a long overdue wakeup call.
My head tilted back almost unconsciously, forcing me to gaze upon the twinkling dots in the sky, that radiance really could stand out against anything, even the backdrop of all this blood and gore wasn’t detracting from its beauty in the least.
Taking a few steps back, I gave the lifeless figure now slumped to its knees one final glance, it felt somewhat strange looking at this particular corpse given how often I’d been interacting with him.
This new life of mine wasn’t ever going to be easy, I already knew that much, but only now did I realize that this was just the starting line. I wasn’t exactly livid about the thought of killing humans, it wasn’t something I’d ever directly participated in before now, but things were different here.
Back in Eden, my main role was reduced to little more than a ‘guide’ for these mortal souls, but now that we were both on the same playing field, situations like this were bound to pop up from time to time. The humans here weren’t as helpless as those in my old world, they had the power to wield magic and it wasn’t just them either, the wide array of races populating this world also held that same degree of power. In a way, the status quo here was similar to what it had been in my old world, the mortals who were all on a somewhat similar level were constantly competing for more power and control, while the deities who were far beyond the means of those mortals simply watched on in either indifference or amusement.
The only thing different about my circumstances this time around was the fact that I was now being thrown into the midst of the mortal struggle. My days of looking on from beyond the veil of worlds had long passed, killing mortals was no longer ‘off limits’ so whenever that time came, I was prepared to act without hesitation.
----------------------------------------
One after the other, my wobbly steps carried me across the battlefield, I stopped by Ulric’s charred body to retrieve a certain item before heading into the forest. My body still felt incredibly heavy, like all four of my limbs were being weighed down by anchors, but I had to press on with whatever little vigor was left in them.
I needed to at least catch up with Vreena, but that was a lot easier said than done. I didn’t have much of a problem seeing in the dark, but the real issue here was just the sheer size of this forest. The massive trees, swaying shadows and howling cries just went to dampen my already dulled senses even further. I wandered around aimlessly for a while before finally latching on to the faint traces of a familiar presence. Heading towards the source of it, I dragged my body along like a wounded soldier, using the towering trees lining my inconspicuous path as support. After a few minutes I finally reached the rigid foot of my destination but before I could even summon the strength to make the arduous journey up the wooden sentinel, my eyes caught a glimpse of a bright read smear trickling down to the roots from the nearest branch.
There she is.
As soon as I'd seen that then it was obvious what was to come next, as much as I wanted to banish the creeping thought about to surface in my mind, I knew I couldn't avoid the inevitable truth.
This was something I’d seen far too many times.
Strength rushed to my legs in a burst of vigor as I launched myself towards the large branch with all my might, just barely managing to reach my target with my outstretched hand. After grappling myself up, my eyes drifted over to the node my right, and just as I’d expected, both Vreena and Emma had their backs braced against it.
Emma was still out cold, but as for Vreena, she was hanging on by a very thin thread thanks to the constat stream of dying breaths she’d been trying her best to maintain. Her eyes were only opened halfway and the red smear soiling her robe had spread to just about everything on her right side. The only reason it didn’t spread any further was because she was using both hands to apply pressure to the wound, and out of consideration, she’d set Emma to lie on her stomach a short distance away from her.
“Li...am?” She muttered in a weak voice.
“Mhm, it’s me.” I gave my melodic response before taking a few more steps.
“......”
“Heh, it’s pretty bad, isn’t it?” That question was nothing but pure sarcasm.
Vreena leaned forward to look down on her wound before forcing a weak grin through her bloodstained teeth. Just watching this scene unfold before my eyes conjured a bitter feeling in my chest, one I couldn’t swallow. I bit down on my lips out of reflex, but that was of little use, especially since the ones responsible for this could no longer be held accountable.
Those debts had already been paid.
“D-don’t worry! I’ll go get-”
I knew it was futile, and so did she, before I could even run off to who knows where, her words anchored me on the spot.
“Don’t.”
My head slowly turned in response to see a thin smile curling up from the corners of her lips.
“It’s.....too late for that.”
She was right, I knew that better than anyone, and yet my head still sunk under the weight of those words.
“....................”
“Liam.....can you....come over here?”
Her bloody fingers beckoned me over and I slowly approached her with my settled gaze before crouching down to meet her quivering eyes. “What about....Ulric and the others? Did you get away safely? Are you hurt?” She fired off one final barrage of questions despite the occasional cracking of her voice.
“Well, they were chasing after me, but I got away without a scratch, just like I said I would.” I practically forced a thin smile with that reply just now, but it was enough to ease the faint look of concern in her eyes.
“Thank...goodness....”
Her trembling hand staggered as it moved through the air, drawing closer to my face before finally clasping my cheek. I could feel the heat slowly leaving her fingers even with all the dried splatter on it, and yet she didn’t look very worried at all.
“You’ve grown a lot....to think the brat I helped Julia deliver....would end up being the one to witness my end....fate truly is ironic.”
I clasped her shivering hand in a bid to stave off the maelstrom of emotions pooling in my chest. Without even realizing it, my gaze had long since been fixed on the dying light in her eyes, her hand was losing heat by the second so it wouldn’t be very long now.
If the situation was different, I would have known exactly what to say at a time like this, but we were in a world that was far removed from all the norms I’d long since grown used to. The way souls in this world passed on was different since neither Akasha nor Eden were here.
If there wasn’t a ‘system’ in place to facilitate the traversal of souls, then the only logical thing for them to do was become one with nature or find themself locked in limbo, but even if that was the case, at best I only had a vague idea as to how that would work here.
I was completely on my own this time, but I couldn’t guide her; I didn’t know where her soul was going, I didn’t know if anyone was coming to collect her soul, I didn’t even know if she was going to pass on immediately....
To think a day would come when I would be this clueless about death of all things, I was created solely to oversee this process and yet, right now I couldn’t even give her any concrete advice. The only thing I had to give right now was vague reassurance, just like every other mortal, in this situation, that was all they could do.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Take Emma and head back to the others Liam, I don’t want to force a child to watch my death....cough*...cough*” Her dry cough stained the wooden surface
“No, I’m staying here. Emma hasn’t woken up yet, so at least let me.... let me see you off...” My reply was drenched in somber
“.....That’s the first time.....I’ve seen you make that face.”
“I’m sure it is....”
With all the rampant thoughts running loose in my mind and no surefire way to confirm or deny any of them, I ended up defaulting to my usual way of dealing with this.
“I know you’re a smart child, so you must know what’s going on here. Are you.....really going to wait around....to watch my death of all things?” she asked that question with a loosening grip.
“Yeah. Wouldn't you be lonely, dying out here all by yourself?” I questioned, still locking eyes with her trembling gaze.
“Heh...you might be.... right about that, I never did like this forest.”
I allowed her to catch a few more of those wheezing breaths before posing another question.
“Do you.....have any regrets?”
She paused for a moment before answering.
“What a thing for a child to ask....well, now that its come to this, I suppose the least I can do...is make my final answer a tad bit interesting.” She mused in solemnity
“I’m sure Oliver......will deal with those punks in due time, so the only thing I’m really worried about is who will take over in my stead. I can only pray that someone... turns out to be a far better leader than I ever was.” My grip tightened in response to that cruel analysis.
“You were a fine leader!” I exclaimed “Whoever ends up taking after you will have a lot of room to fill.”
That was more than just reassurance, after everything that’s happened today, she didn't deserve to go out with such a cruel assessment of herself.
“You think so? Well, for a temporary position...I guess I didn’t do too bad.”
“Yeah...you did good.”
Her eyes glossed over, slowly building up the transparent fluid before it ultimately started to leak over the edges of her eyelids.
“...Are you satisfied?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper
“I will be....after you and Emma get home.”
“We will, I promise.”
Vreena let loose a weak laugh, one tainted with joy and sorrow.
“Liam...do me a favor...”
“Hm? What is it?”
“My vision is going dark, so before my eyes give out...can you show me....your smile one last time?”
“Sure, take a good look.” I clutched her shaking hand even harder, summoning the brightest grin I’d ever dawned in the process.
“You really do look nicer...like that. You should...try smiling more.”
“I’ll give it a shot.”
“Oh Liam....One more thing...Tell Julia...I’m sorry.” Those words hung heavy with remorse
“I’m sure my mother wouldn’t blame you, not one bit. You’ve really done a lot for my parents over these last four years, so on their behalf, let me say this – Thank you, for everything.”
The transparent light in her eyes flickered bright for the last time before the floodgates to the dam of tears finally spilled over.
“That's nice to hear......you’re.... very welcome.”
Vreena’s responses were growing weaker by the second, I kept holding onto her for what felt like a springing stretch of time, listening to whatever woes and worries she had left unsaid but, just under five minutes later, she stopped responding. The sound of her heartbeat had gone completely quiet, and her once ragged breathing went silent, leaving a profound stillness in its wake.
Incarnating into this form came with a lot of drawbacks - I was weak, I needed both sleep and sustenance, and I could no longer use the full extent of my original powers. Those were all major setbacks on their own, but one of the biggest hindrances that came along with having this body was the ability to feel emotions. Assimilating this body’s original soul in a bid to strengthen my influence over it seemed like a good idea at the time, but apparently it came with both the good and the bad. Now that I was the ‘true owner’ of this vessel, my emotions were subject to change based on the circumstances around me, especially in the case of what was happening right now.
A wicked feeling washed over me, it felt like a mix of sadness, rage, and anxiety, yet it was far removed from the typical one-off bouts of spontaneity that usually preceded those emotions. This was something different, it lingered in my throat like a bitter taste, refusing to be spit out or swallowed. The sensation tightened its grip on my heart, slowly clamping down on it like a thorny vine. Only after the initial wave of bitterness had passed did I discern the true meaning behind that sensation just now...
It was regret.
“Damn it...”
----------------------------------------
I brought down the two bodies resting on the large branch one after the other as soon as I escaped from my slumped daze. I couldn’t exactly tell how much time had passed since Vreena died, but I’m sure I was stuck staring at her lifeless body for at least ten minutes.
THUD
I landed on the ground with Vreena’s body in hand.
Now there was just the issue of bringing these two back to town, but in my current condition that was looking - “Gck!”
My body lost its balance, tilting over to the side just before I crashed into the bark of the tree now acting as my support. I almost toppled over just now, and my vision was starting to break apart as if it were a whimsical haze.
I could barely even take two steps forward, it felt like every muscle in my body had started to contract all at once, tightening every fiber in my frame from my chest down to my toes. The drawbacks of using up all my mana and pushing myself this far were finally starting to catch up to me.
That alone would have been bad but the moment I gave my shirtless body a quick once over I found the source of that stinging feeling. There was a thin red line stretching along a diagonal arc on my abdomen, it wasn’t particularly painful but the only way I could have gotten such a wound was from my near miss with the basilisk’s fangs earlier. It was honestly just a scratch but that still didn’t change the fact that I was poisoned. It must have taken a while for the effects to really kick in given how shallow the wound was but either way, it was bound to only make things harder.
DOOM
A large rumble shook my surroundings.
The trees swayed in the onset of wind now rushing past my body, it almost seemed like they were shaking in fear as the rumbling continued to draw closer with every breath. From where I stood, it looked as if something was carving a path through the Earth and heading straight for us and just a short distance from me, a familiar serpentine frame burst through the dust cloud of smoke and rubble.
“GWOOOAHHH!!!”
Sure enough, it was the half dead basilisk, upon its emergence it let loose a pressuring roar that seemed to span miles. I was in no condition to fight this thing, heck, even at my best the odds were still stacked against me, and to make matters worse, on top of being poisoned I still had Emma and Vreena to look after. Although her body had long since gone cold in my arms, I had no intention of leaving it behind.
The monster reared its ugly head to look down on us with a menacing one-eyed gleam, but with my vision already being this hazy, I couldn’t even feel the full brunt of its ire. From what I could tell, half of its face was hanging loosely thanks to that sweeping slash I’d managed to deal earlier. The cut seemed to only get shallower further down its body, but even so, it would still need a miracle to survive with those injuries.
Alas, I suppose one final rampage was in order.
That dying instinct must have been what led it here by pure coincidence.
“Yo” I called out in a somber voice.
“We’re both at death’s door right now...do you really want to do this? I think I’ve had enough fighting for one day.”
A venomous hiss came flying my way, surely that was the only kind of response I was going to get from this thing.
After winding up its body, the beast looked ready to spring at us, but just then -
A brilliant flash of light passed a little ways over my head, rising up into the air the further it traveled. The heat from the attack was enough to scorch even the swaying branches of trees that lined either side of its path and without warning, it slammed into the basilisk’s head, completely incinerating the monster’s upper half in a single shot.
Plumes of ashes quickly began crumbling way from the spot where the monster’s head ought to have been, and not long after, the remainder of its gargantuan body lifelessly plopped to the ground, reduced to a heap of nothing but smoldering remains.
“Ignition...gust?” I murmured in awe.
With Vreena’s body still in hand, I slowly turned my head in the direction of the path lined with flame filled destruction. At the center of the dousing flames was a bespectacled man that approached us with a look of ferocity and grit in his eyes.
Before he could even cover half the distance between us, another surge of agony coursed through my veins, I couldn’t even summon the strength to squeal. My vision darkened and I welcomed it, because I knew it would put an end to all this pain and suffering.